Jazz in the City

Are business people especially into jazz? You would assume so from Jazz in the City (Jazz FM, yesterday), a new interview show featuring leading figures from the finance world and their choice of jazz tracks. It's a format with endless potential for adapting to other sectors. Jazz at the Dentists. Jazz on the Buses. The programme's hosts, Andy Brough and Paul Kavanagh, are from the business world, too, though it might have been an idea to get someone from the world of radio instead. The chat is a bit stilted and odd, especially when it delves right back into fiscal chat following a jazzy tune. Yesterday's guest, Ian Powell from Price­waterhouseCoopers, picked a likable ­selection of classy classics, all followed by statements like: "There's a huge competition for tax receipts across the world." It's not what most people are moved to say after a sultry burst of ­Astrud Gilberto. Unwisely the business talk dominated, overshadowing some great music and eclipsing biographical material apart from a couple of promising, slivers. Mostly, it was a big plug for PWC and dry talk about the corporate world of accountancy, and I'm not sure who wants either of those things on a Sunday evening. The jazz, from giants such as Stan Getz and Miles Davis, sat uneasily alongside them, too.